What’s driving our favorite fruit into decline?
Grist - 3/9/2010. By Gary Nabhan – You've heard the hackneyed phrase "as American as apple pie." But America is not taking care of the apples -- or the orchard-keepers -- that have nourished us for centuries. In 1900, 20 million apple trees were growing in the U.S.; now, not even a fourth remain in our orchards and gardens. Today, much of the apple juice consumed in the U.S. is produced overseas. |
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Blowin’ in the wind: the true meaning of ‘ag unity’
Grist - 3/8/2010.By Debra Eschmeyer – Of the 50 or so food and farm conferences I've attended in the last several years, the Drake Forum for America's New Farmers: Policy Innovations & Opportunities held March 4-5 in Washington, D.C., rises to the top. Actual farmers – not just commodity crop growers but innovative "agripreneurs" like Xe Susane Moua from Minnesota and Rosanna Bauman from Kansas – got to tell the USDA what they needed to survive. But were policymakers listening? |
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Cities sue manufacturer of weed-killer found in tap water
Huffington Post - 3/8/2010.By Danielle Ivory – A coalition of communities in six Midwestern states filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to force the manufacturer of a widely-used herbicide to pay for its removal from drinking water. As the Huffington Post Investigative Fund reported in a series of articles last fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to notify the public that atrazine had been found at levels above the federal safety limit in drinking water in at least four states. |
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Connecting chemicals and obesity
Lewiston Sun Journal - 3/7/2010.Op-Ed by Sharon Tisher. I would agree with Michelle Obama that the problem of childhood obesity is solvable, and that we should address it on many fronts. One part of the solution, however, is so elusive that it is just reaching the radar screen of public health experts.
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